Waste Management Challenges Due to Tourism in Hilly Areas in India: A Case Study of Chamundi Hills, Mysore

Waste management is a difficult errand in hilly regions in India due to its rugged terrain and land issues. However, despite these challenges, Chamundi Hills in Mysore becomes a famous tourist place due to Chamundeshwari Temple situated at the top of this Chamundi Hills. It is located 13 km east of Mysore city with an average altitude is 3300 ft. Tourism is one of the main economical sources of the Mysore. It has been reported that approximately 3.5 million tourists visited Mysore city every year. During peak tourist seasons, it increases approximately 7.0 million as per the survey of Mysore City Corporation (MCC). It becomes a cause of massive problem on the basic infrastructure amenities and environment, especially when it comes to waste management. The new SWM rules in India have some special provision for waste management in the hilly areas. However, the implementation stage is quite not clear in such places with high rate of tourism and religious purposes. The case of Chamundi Hills is quite so, and very less intervention has been done to understand the current status of SWM there. As a result, the way forward and the scopes of improvement are unknown. In this paper, an attempt has been taken to understand the current status of SWM at Chamundi Hills by conducting surveys. The perspective of the stakeholders on the factors which are affecting the SWM has also been studied in details. Finally, the solutions to address the issues and challenges towards proper SWM have been suggested. The findings will help the stakeholders and policymakers in further decision-making.